Microelectronic devices typically require switching power supplies, which are designed to deliver power from a primary source to an electrical load at a specified current, voltage, and power efficiency. Switching power supplies are useful due to the small area and volume they occupy. They are also known for high efficiency, high current capability, and topological flexibility. Switching power supplies can employ many topologies, such as buck, boost, buck-boost, forward, flyback, half-bridge, full-bridge, and SEPIC. In particular, multiphase buck converters are well suited to supply power at low voltage and high current, while maintaining accurate voltage. Typically, buck converters comprise active components, such as a pulse width modulation (PWM) controller integrated circuit, driver circuits, power MOSFETs, and passive components, such as inductors, capacitors, and resistors. With the advent of increasingly complex power regulation topologies, digital techniques for power converter control, specifically in multiphase designs, can improve precision and reduce the system's total parts count while also supporting multiple applications in the same power system through digitally programmable feedback control.
Power requirements for emerging leading edge technology, however, have become very difficult to satisfy. As the speed and integration of electronic components increases, the demands on the power regulation system increase. For example, as gate counts increase, the power regulation current demand increases, the operating voltage decreases, and transient events (e.g. relatively large voltage and/or current spikes or droops at the load) typically increase in both magnitude and frequency. Some emerging microprocessors are expected to run on less than 1.0 volts and more than 150 amperes.